Make Meerut Smart City: Votes cross 3.75L mark

MEERUT: A record one lakh votes were received for Meerut’s bid to be chosen under the smart city drive on Saturday. The Meerut Municipal Corporation (MMC) authorities said the last date to receive votes had been extended till June 28. So far, a total of 3.75 lakh votes have been received through online voting, missed calls and offline.

BJP’s former state president Lakshmikant Bajpai held a camp at gymkhana ground where around 20,000 forms were filled up within two hours.

“First, the voting drive started in Meerut three months later than other cities as our entry could be finalised on May 28. The consultancy agency arrived here on June 5 to start a survey and to launch the voting process. But due to the lackadaisical attitude of MMC officials, within first seven days, only 17,000 votes could be received through different channels. The credit goes to the media who made citizens aware about the importance of voting. We are sure that the figure will cross the benchmark of 5 lakh votes in the next three days. Now, if the city is not selected for the first phase of the smart city drive, MMC officials will be responsible for it,” said Bajpai.

Bajpai said that he had asked the MMC to provide him 50,000 forms, which could be arranged in two installments. “I sent my workers to all 16 police stations to get the forms filled up by cops and their family members. Our efforts have yielded results as we received 100-150 forms from every police station. Now, my 200-member team is uploading forms on the smart city website from different locations,” added former state president of the BJP.

Meanwhile, MMC executive engineer, Moinuddin, said, “On Friday, we had a meeting with the secretary of urban development ministry in Lucknow and he assured us that Meerut had secured its position in the smart city race. We’ve prepared a cost estimate for development works of Rs 956 crore for the city. We are positive that we’ll be chosen under the smart city drive in the first phase.”

Currently, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is levied at 12 per cent on payments made for under-construction property or ready-to-move-in flats where completion certificate has not been issued at the time of sale.